We chat with 3D design wiz, MirkoAndricDesign™

We’ve been wowed for a while by MirkoAndricDesign™‘s impressive grasp on 3D design. Deftly designing 3D models and renderings, he’s brought restaurant, apartment and office interiors to life, and helped inventors visualize the look of new products.

We decided to chat with Mirko about how he got started and his plans for the future.

In secondary school I became more serious about my drawing and oil painting and participated in a few group exhibitions. This led me to enroll in a 3-year college program in graphic design.

Unfortunately, after graduating I had trouble finding a job, since I didn’t have much of a portfolio. So I started working on 99designs, just with the goal of building a portfolio. But after two months I found myself making serious money and soon decided that I had no need to look for a job elsewhere.

Design for a rooftop lounge

Most of your success on 99designs has been in “3D design” categories. Did your graphic design program prepare you for this?

In college we learned a bit of everything (drawing, modeling, animation, etc.) but really it only skimmed the surface. I gained most of my skills working in a wide variety of 99designs contests, where I learned a lot of new things about all types of design. Eventually I became really good at a few categories, especially 3D.

“3D” is a broad category. What are clients typically looking for?

It’s mostly about visualization, but there are also a fair amount of projects where I need to model functional architectural space or prototype a product.

Early rendering for a window heating system

What kind of skills do you need to be good at that?

To be good at 3D, you have to have a sense of space and a good eye for details. It also requires knowledge of some basic math—and lot of persistence.

What software do you use?

At first I used SketchUp for modeling, but now I more and more am using others programs: 3D Maya, 3D Max, Lumion. And Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator are inevitable. It seems that every program is lacking in some regard, so I have to compensate for the shortcomings of one program with a combination of others.

Later rendering of the window heating system

Are you working on any particularly interesting projects at the moment?

I have so many interesting projects. The great thing about 99designs is that one day I work for someone in the Cayman Islands; next day it is for someone in New Zealand, etc. I can’t say I have favorite; for me, every project is special in its own way.

Well, I do have one personal project that I’m pretty excited about. I call it “mysterious clock.” It is a clock (I’m working on patenting the mechanism) based on ancient Egyptian drawings in pyramids. In fact it is very simple, but without some instruction, you wouldn’t be able to tell the time.

Very intriguing … And do you have any other hopes or aspirations for the coming future?

Right now I am in the process of registering a company with my friend, who is an architect. Hopefully it will be open early in 2015. We’re calling it DIZARH.SOLUTIONS, and it will offer wide range of designs and architectural projects.